POLITICS

Exclusive: Former Republican Rep. Stephen Fincher enters Tennessee U.S. Senate race

Joey Garrison
The Tennessean
Stephen Fincher, who has entered the U.S. Senate race in Tennessee, represented Tennessee's 8th Congressional District from 2011 to 2017.

Former Republican U.S. Rep. Stephen Fincher is entering next year’s U.S. Senate race in Tennessee, a move that pits him against one of his former GOP congressional colleagues in the election to replace retiring Sen. Bob Corker.

Fincher, a seventh-generation cotton farmer from tiny Frog Jump in West Tennessee — who bypassed college to continue the family business — announced his bid in an interview with the USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee.

Fincher, who represented Tennessee's 8th Congressional District from 2011 to 2017, cast himself as a “citizen legislator” — not a “career politician” — who sings in a family gospel group each weekend and understands everyday Tennesseans.

► More:Sen. Bob Corker will not seek re-election next year

► More:U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn launches Senate bid

He said he’s running to help push President Donald Trump’s agenda and shake up a “do-nothing Congress.”

“We’re going to get in this race, and we’re going to get in it to win it, and go up there and try to get something done,” the 44-year-old Fincher said. “Let’s stand up with the president on his policies.

“From what people are telling us, they’re just tired of the status quo career politician, and it’s time we — to take an old saying from the farm — plow and turn over Congress and put some new growth up there. I think that’s what people want, so that’s what we’re going to try to do.”

Fincher looks to exploit opioid issue against Blackburn

Also seeking the GOP nomination in the 2018 U.S. Senate election are U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Brentwood, whom Fincher served alongside in Congress, and conservative activist Andy Ogles, former head of the Koch Brothers-funded Americans for Prosperity-Tennessee. Perennial candidate Larry Crim is also running.

On the Democratic side, former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen is weighing a run, saying Tuesday that he would have a decision in a few weeks. Nashville attorney James Mackler is the lone Democrat currently in the race. Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke also is considering entering. 

Fincher’s entry into the race comes after wrapping up a 10-day “listening tour” that took him from East Tennessee across the state and back to Frog Jump, an unincorporated community in Crockett County 50 miles northeast of Memphis.

The tour — a sign that Fincher was planning to enter the race — allowed him to push back at any notion that Blackburn, a longtime conservative congressman from Williamson County in Middle Tennessee, had cleared the Republican field.

Fincher mostly refrained from speaking about Blackburn during his trip. But he pounced on an opening earlier this week after "60 Minutes" and The Washington Post reported on a former Drug Enforcement Administration whistleblower who accused Blackburn and other members of Congress of passing a law that led to lax scrutiny over opioid distribution, handcuffing the federal government’s ability to fight the national opioid crisis.

Fincher said it illustrates that politicians in Washington, D.C., are “out of touch.”

"This is an issue that shows Tennesseans want someone to stand up against special interests,” Fincher said. “We’re losing lives. Our jails, little towns and communities are broken. People, they go to Washington, and have stayed up there too long and are out of touch with what’s really happening all over this great state.”

Fincher, who was in Congress at the time, was among the House members who unanimously approved the legislation without objection.

On Sunday, a Blackburn campaign spokeswoman criticized Fincher and said the race now has a "clear contrast."

"Now we have a clear contrast between a supporter of President Trump who will drain the swamp in Washington, versus Nancy Pelosi's favorite Republican who champions corporate welfare," Blackburn spokeswoman Andrea Bozek said by email.

► More:Rep. Marsha Blackburn: Drug law had 'unintended consequences,' should be revisited 'immediately'

► More:Blackburn hopes to 'quickly work to address' flaws in drug law, aide says

► More:Rep. Jim Cooper announces bill to repeal rollback on DEA opioid enforcement power

Fincher calls himself a 'results-oriented' conservative 

Blackburn, who announced her candidacy Oct. 5 and emerged as the early GOP front-runner, came out of the gate seeking to stake out the most conservative lane of the Republican primary and to appeal to Trump’s biggest loyalists.

She called herself a “hardcore, card-carrying Tennessee conservative (who is) politically incorrect — and proud of it.”

But Fincher isn’t giving up that political ground without a fight. He touted his conservative stances on social issues — he said he’s “pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, pro-Second Amendment” — and that he would fight for "balanced budgets, less regulation, lower taxes and peace through strength." 

Fincher said he would seek to repeal the Affordable Care Act, support Trump’s tax overhaul, push changes to immigration law and work to improve the state’s workforce development at two-year schools. 

“More than anything, they just want results,” Fincher said of Tennesseans. “They just want members of Congress, the House and the Senate, to do more than double-talk the folks in Tennessee. I think it will be pretty clear to the people, when they look at what we did when we were there, and what my opposition has done, who gets results.”

Competitive GOP Senate primary predicted 

Fincher could be in position to appeal to the establishment wing of the party led by Corker, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander and Gov. Bill Haslam and their allies. But expect all Republican candidates, including in the state's gubernatorial race, to steer clear of the establishment tag. 

For Ogles, the entry of the former congressman presents an opportunity to run as the only candidate from outside the Beltway, allowing him to perhaps claim the only purely anti-establishment path. 

► More:Republican Andy Ogles' bid for Bob Corker's U.S. Senate seat to get $4 million assist from Lee Beaman

► More:Conservative activist Andy Ogles launches U.S. Senate bid for seat held by Bob Corker

Fincher’s candidacy will be challenged by a lack of familiarity and name recognition outside his district, which includes all or parts of 15 mostly rural West Tennessee counties. Blackburn, in contrast, has seen her national profile rise in recent years, culminating last year with a prime-time speaking slot at the National Republican Convention.

► Analysis:Shifting political winds forecast trouble for Tennessee's establishment Republicans

► Analysis:Bob Corker's retirement latest move in Tennessee leadership ‘sea change’

But Fincher will have the help of $2.3 million currently in his federal campaign committee, which he is allowed to use in his Senate run. Blackburn’s federal political action committee has $3.1 million on hand.

"He's going to immediately be a serious candidate," said Vanderbilt University political science professor John Geer. "I don't think he'd be called a front-runner, but I think it's now a little harder to label Congresswoman Blackburn a front-runner. It's going to probably be a pretty competitive battle. They both have access to money."

Geer said Fincher can talk about "being outside of Washington" in the campaign because of his departure in 2016 and try to tie Blackburn to failures of Congress, including on the health care issue if it persists. 

But he also pointed to Blackburn's superior name recognition and said Fincher won't be able to link himself to Trump as easily as Blackburn. 

"Certainly, he's not anti-Trump by any standard, but I think he's got that problem," Geer said. "Marsha Blackburn is going to try to paint him as a member of the establishment, which I think is an interesting effort because he's not an elected official right now."

Fincher said he's confident his message will reach across the state, saying he learned during his listening tour that people in all parts of the state “share the same concerns, the same values and the same angst.”

From farmer to congressman 

To get to Congress, Fincher defeated former state Sen. Roy Herron, D-Dresden, by a 20 percentage point margin in 2010 to fill the seat held by retiring Democratic U.S. Rep. John Tanner.

In that race, Herron criticized Fincher for declining to release his tax returns. Fincher also faced complaints that he broke campaign finance law by characterizing a $250,000 loan as coming from personal resources rather than a bank. He was not penalized, but members of the Federal Election Commission agreed he improperly reported the loan.

Voters twice re-elected Fincher, but he opted against re-election in 2016, citing the need to go back home to be with an ill brother.

“He made a 100 percent recovery, or I could not even think about doing this,” he said of his run today.

Fincher, who has frequently touted term limits in Congress, was succeeded by U.S. Rep. David Kustoff, R-Germantown.

Fincher gained notoriety during Export-Import Bank reauthorization 

As a congressman, Fincher is perhaps best known for leading the charge to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank. The 2015 fight to revive the entity, which provides financing for U.S. exports, pitted Fincher against some of the more conservative members of the party. 

Fincher worked behind the scenes, with the approval of outgoing House Speaker John Boehner, to get the votes needed to reauthorize the controversial financial institution.

The move came despite soon-to-be Speaker Paul Ryan and others calling the legislation a form of bank corporate welfare, according to Politico and McClatchy.

Fincher is married to his wife of 25 years, Lynn. They have three children. The family attends the Archer's Chapel United Methodist Church in Frog Jump.

Fincher declined to say how much money he thinks he'll need to raise for his Senate bid, nor would he discuss the possibility of self-financing a portion of his campaign.  

A spokesman for Fincher said a campaign team is still being assembled and that an announcement will happen soon.

Staff writer Joel Ebert contributed to this report. Reach Joey Garrison at jgarrison@tennessean.com or 615-259-8236 and on Twitter @joeygarrison.

Stephen Fincher

Age: 44

Hometown: Frog Jump

Occupation: Cotton farmer, Fincher Farms; former U.S. House member representing Tennessee's 8th Congressional District from 2011 to 2017.

Family: Wife Lynn, three children.

Other: The family attends Archer's Chapel United Methodist Church in Frog Jump.